Influential Educator Promoted 'Backward Design'

Courtesy Denise Wilbur, hc

Grant Wiggins, of Hartford, was an influential educator whose philosophy has influenced thousands of teachers, and he referred to himself as a “professional educational troublemaker of long standing.” Wiggins, 64, died on May 26 of a heart attack.

Grant Wiggins, of Hartford, was an influential educator whose philosophy has influenced thousands of teachers, and he referred to himself as a “professional educational troublemaker of long standing.” Wiggins, 64, died on May 26 of a heart attack. (Courtesy Denise Wilbur, hc)

ANNE M. HAMILTONSpecial to The Courant

Extraordinary Life: Grant Wiggins, who influenced generations of teachers, called himself a “professiona

High school Principal Pete Steedman begins every school year by telling his staff to read an article by Grant Wiggins titled, "The Futility of Trying to Teach Everything of Importance."

"I love what it said about the choices we make as teachers and how, in the end, the most important thing we can do is ask kids to question," said Steedman, former principal of a charter school in Hyannis, Mass.

Wiggins was an influential educator whose philosophy has influenced thousands of teachers, and he referred to himself as a "professional educational troublemaker of long standing." He urged teachers to work backwards, from the goals they wanted students to achieve to the knowledge they wanted pupils to acquire, and only then create a curriculum. He called this theory "Backward Design," a concept that has become a mantra for many educators.

Grant Wiggins, 64, died on May 26 of a heart attack. After years of living in New Jersey, he had recently moved to Hartford with his wife.

Wiggins began teaching philosophy and religion at the Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor in 1973. "He was a charismatic teacher," said Aaron Hess, the associate head of school. "He was in the vanguard of evaluating student work and teaching."

Wiggins left Loomis in 1981 to study for a doctorate in education at Harvard, and while there developed the theories that made him a highly regarded educational thinker.

"His name is one of the biggest [in education] with anyone who knows anything about curriculum development, "said Stacey Katz Bourns, the director of romance language programs at Harvard.

Wiggins, who had coached cross-country at Loomis, drew a parallel between coaching and teaching methodologies: emphasize intentionality, be clear about goals, concentrate on performance, said Denise Wilbur, Wiggins' wife.

Wiggins was born on Aug. 16, 1950, to Dorothy and Bill Gittinger, a doctor who did research for Pfizer. Gittinger died in an airplane crash when Wiggins was in elementary school and his mother married Guy A. Wiggins, a Foreign Service officer, who adopted Wiggins and changed his name. Guy Wiggins later became an established artist, following in the steps of his own father, Guy C. Wiggins, who was a well-known American Impressionist.

Grant grew up in Washington, New York, Geneva, Switzerland and Mexico City.

He was an indifferent student at the Loomis School, and after graduating in 1968, he attended St. John's College in Annapolis, Md., which bases its curriculum on Great Books, before returning to teach at Loomis.

"The philosophers resonated with him," his wife said. "He was very smart, but not a great student, but that helped him as an educator."

At Harvard, Wiggins focused on how thoughtfulness could be incorporated into teaching and learning. "It underlay his later work," his wife said.

He developed his ideas while teaching during his graduate school years. One course, on how a bill became a law, focused on the realities of lawmaking, including the immense power wielded by lobbyists. "It clarified the incredible pressure felt by lawmakers," Wilbur said. "We need kids to understand the truth."

Wiggins dismissed the idea that the accumulation of facts was equivalent to an education. Students had to be encouraged to question everything: Why was something important? Who decided? What is the motivation of the person being depicted, or the bias of an author? What is the nature of understanding?

He felt far too much emphasis was being placed on acquiring information without examining its quality, relevance or accuracy. "It's not just information, but the underlying ideas" that are important, Wilbur said. "You need an understanding of the causes and effects of the Civil War, not just the facts."

Wiggins met Jay McTighe, who worked at the state Department of Education in Maryland, and they discovered they had similar ideas about teaching and evaluating outcomes. They both wanted schools to focus on critical thinking and problem solving, and together, they wrote "Understanding by Design," published in 1998. A third edition is underway.

The ideas were easier to understand than to put into action. "He was trying to distill what we know about what good teachers do automatically," Wilbur said. "What you want is to draw on everything you learned in school to solve new problems you never met.

Essentially, this meant drawing up new lesson plans, relying on original sources, urging students to pose their own questions. "There is no 'program,' no textbook," said McTighe. It's a framework, a way of thinking and planning."

A traditional way of teaching the French Revolution focuses on historical facts: storming the Bastille, Marie Antoinette and Napoleon.

"In our approach," McTighe said, "we begin with, why do people revolt? What is a revolution? What are the results of a revolution? What do patterns of past revolutions tell us? Whose 'story' is this?"

These discussion lead to even broader questions about contemporary revolutions. "What are the larger patterns we can see from studying this period?" McTighe asked. "The goal is not just learning facts but equipping students to be more critical of 'history.' "

In 2002, Wiggins and Wilbur started Authentic Education, a company that consults with school districts, conducts conferences and designs curriculum. They have worked with textbook companies and have developed hundreds of teaching units from kindergarten through high school.

Allison Zmuda drew on Wiggins' ideas for her book, "The Competent Classroom."

"'Understanding by Design' was magical; it has a level of clarity and simplicity to it," she said. "It makes total sense. But it is the opposite of the way teachers usually plan something. ... It was hard to adapt his ideas. The ideas are simple, but the orchestration of ideas, that's where the hard part comes from."

Wiggins had a lighter side. He brought his educational theories to the American School in Paris, where he and his wife had an apartment, and loved to prepare French recipes. He sang and played the guitar, and formed a band of teachers and students at Loomis called Rabbit Creek. Later, he played with a rock band in New Jersey called The Hazbins.

At his Hartford home, he loved hosting musical events. Despite his Foreign Service upbringing, he was very informal, hated being called "Doctor" because of his EdD, and usually wore black sneakers, a polo shirt and dark blue pants. He ran in several marathons before turning to walking as recreation.

When his son, Justin, was considering a career in music, Wiggins urged him to apply his educational theories and think backwards from his ultimate goal rather than proceed without a plan.

Did Justin want to be a professional musician or play guitar on cruise ships? Wiggins suggested that Justin think about practicalities: How many gigs he would need to survive financially? Was it wise to buy so much new equipment?

From this analysis, Justin realized his goal: rather than perform at many venues he didn't like, or move to Los Angeles, he would play a few gigs he would really enjoy. He decided to hold just a few events in a Brooklyn loft, which were very successful. (His father was a back-up singer when one performer pulled out.)

"The blessing of doing it in such a hands-on, focused way, was people just had a wonderful time and I covered my costs," Justin said. "People begged for the next one."

In addition to his wife, Denise Wilbur, Wiggins is survived by four children from his first marriage: Alexis, Justin, Ian, and Priscilla Wiggins; his parents Dorothy and Guy Wiggins; his brothers Guy and Noel Wiggins and his grandsons Elios and Amadeo Estrada.

"He rejected anything that smacked of dogma or some false authority," his wife said. "He believed in the power of reason and the ability of thoughtful people to ask questions and consider answers for themselves."